James had used his ability to sacrifice his health plenty of times before. But never seven times in a row.

He saw the world through a veil of crimson, but it wasn’t because of his Chaos Barrier.

The crimson energies he had released through his sacrifices were almost blinding. The Darkness of the Stygian city seemed to have vanished from his surroundings, recoiling in terror at the concentrated aura of chaos.

Garantep could sense the cluster of power within James as well. Worse yet, James had empowered his friends too. Helios was fighting eight clones at a time, while a dozen were attacking the group’s barrier.

But the situation was now reversed. Instead of them slowly being worn down with every single strike, they now seemed energized, able to dodge and resist everything that was thrown at them.

And it was all because of James.

Suddenly, the clones stopped attacking. They all turned towards James.

“All I need to do is to get rid of you. And the rest will fall soon after.” The clones spat out in unison. Before the corrosive spit could even hit the ground, they dashed towards James.

James didn’t react. He didn’t dodge or move at all. He almost looked paralyzed.

But it wasn’t out of fear or hesitation.

He was overwhelmed. But not by Garantep.

He was overwhelmed by the power boiling inside him. Seven whole sacrifices one after the other. While the effects of [Reckless Abandon] weren’t exactly multiplicative, they still added up.

His new body could handle the wooziness from that many sacrifices just fine. But his mind wasn’t used to such a rush of power.

He could see the 32 bodies rushing at him, throwing waves of Darkness magic ahead of them.

But he didn’t feel the need to hurry. He could see them all coming at him in slow motion. But he didn’t see Garantep the same way he saw him before. All he saw was an ocean of red, with 32 auras of Darkness heading at him.

He felt like he could just step aside leisurely, and they’d all miss him. He didn’t have such a feeling since the first time he had used [Reckless Abandon].

The enemies had only gotten stronger since then, all of them able to combat his increased speed and power, no matter how many times he sacrificed his health.

James conjured a dozen empowered Javelins in an instant, his increased speed making it take less than a second. Before the attacking clones could even reach him, he unleashed the Javelins into three of them.

Four loud explosions shook each of their bodies, and they fell to the ground, limp and lifeless. The increase in power left his hand shaking uncontrollably.

Within his crimson vision, he could see the Darkness within their bodies losing its shape. It looked like they were truly dead, and yet the Darkness around them wasn’t fading away. It was churning and swirling without a shape, but it wasn’t disappearing.

But he didn’t have time to worry about that. All the other clones were bombarding and rushing at him.

Still, he wasn’t worried. He had used [Reckless Abandon] before, but it never felt like this. He hadn’t even reached the limits of his new body. The initial wooziness was now totally gone.

He began wondering just how far could he push himself. If he sacrificed a dozen more times, could he end Garantep’s existence right then and there?

James stepped aside, easily dodging the hundreds of stabs aimed at him from the more than a dozen clones that had reached him.

Garantep actually seemed weak. Incredibly, surprisingly weak. The feeling was almost intoxicating.

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But then that became worrying. It was way too easy. This guy was supposed to be so much stronger than the first superior, and now he was easily handling 32 of him?

He looked at his friends, but they were happily striking at the clones from their positions, unhurt and definitely not in any danger.

James spawned a dozen more Javelins, and the clones dropped like flies. Three more were down just like that.

The effects of his [Reckless Abandon] began wearing off. Suddenly, the clones seemed much faster, and he had to activate SARM to dodge.

Was he just that strong when under the effects of [Reckless Abandon], or was something else going on here? His own invincibility was making him worry.

James jumped towards his friends, using Chaotic Healing on them again. He didn’t even care about the pain anymore. The effects of the last cast hadn’t even worn off yet, so they immediately became even stronger. With a mere shove of his shield, Helios had caved in a clone’s chest.

Helios began launching waves of all-consuming fire towards the clones, burning the very Darkness off of them. The fires were so powerful that they managed to lit up the dark city, combating the oppressive light-consuming effect of the Darkness.

Emilia was stunning the clones left and right. Denmac was fueling the shield all by himself, while the dwarves began using their runes and imps and vines to fight the clones directly. Even Lunaris released her butterflies and holy magic to burn and stun some of the bodies, while throwing heals into James with her other hand.

Garantep was mostly focusing on James, but he was dodging effortlessly. He was still a bit woozy from sacrificing his health yet again, but the effects of the renewed [Reckless Abandon] were more than worth it.

Spawning dozens of Javelins a second, the clones were dropping like flies.

He should have been extremely happy. But he wasn’t born yesterday. Even the battle with the traitor agent three months ago seemed harder. And this guy was supposed to be unimaginably stronger. Every agent’s memories showed that they were shaking in their boots at the mere mention of his name.

No, it couldn’t be this easy. James knew he had gotten strong, but he wasn’t arrogant enough to believe that he was so strong that he’d defeat Garantep just like that.

He launched another dozen Javelins, and immediately the last three clones were dead.

But James wasn’t excited, not even for a second.

“Alright, alright. How about you stop this charade and just come out, wherever you are?” James said emotionlessly.

A laugh echoed throughout the city.

Suddenly, all 32 bodies disintegrated into clouds of Darkness, which quickly flowed into the underground. The clouds were shaking, it almost looked like they were trying to escape. But they were sucked into the ground within seconds.

The earth trembled and split apart, and a pool of Darkness was formed. A head slowly emerged, as if the earth itself was giving birth to this demon.

Within an instant, Garantep’s body emerged.

But this time around, there wasn’t a hint of Darkness about him. Unlike the previous bodies covered from head to toe in Darkness, this one looked like a perfectly normal human. There wasn’t even a hint of aura coming from him.

And yet, his mere presence seemed to be suffocating. Suddenly, Denmac began trembling.

“What’s wrong?” Lunaris asked.

“I-I don’t know. It’s like the memories I absorbed are reacting to him.” Denmac answered with a shaky voice, still trembling uncontrollably.”

Instead of the Darkness within the city converging towards Garantep, this time around it almost looked like it was being repelled. As if it was running away from him.

“There’s always a phase two.” James shook his head. “Ok, so what was the point of all this?” James shouted, clearly annoyed.

“I must thank you again. You’re already proving to be useful. I can’t wait to get my hands on your soul.” Garantep slowly clapped as he creepily licking his lips. “I suppose you have the right to know what you just did before you die. Thank you for … tenderizing those energies.”

“Tenderizing? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” James asked.

“Well, I couldn’t just absorb all that power. Hundreds of dead agents, a dozen or so superior ones. Those are a lot of wills, a lot of souls fighting for their continued existence. Even I can’t fully subdue them just like that.” Garantep laughed as the Darkness within the city seemed to try to be flying away from him, only to be dragged back forcefully, disappearing as soon as it touched him.

“So what are you saying? That we helped you absorb them?” James shook his head. “Ok, so now there’s just one huge asshole rather than 32 smaller ones. Big deal, it’ll just be easier for us to cut you down.”

“Charming as always.” Garantep smiled. “But if you had that much trouble with just a bunch of animated energies, I can hardly imagine you beating me and my actual powers.” Garantep licked his lips. “Oh, and I failed to mention one small thing. Not only were you tenderizing those energies for me, but I was also busy using my real body to absorb something else. Can you guess what that is?”

James thought for a few seconds, but there could only be one answer. “Could you mean the containers I destroyed earlier, perchance? So what, you’re saying I didn’t properly destroy them or something?”

“No, no, you did quite a good job. Burned the whole facility to the ground.” Garantep clapped again. “Except I did an even better one.”

“God damn it, just how many powers does this guy have? Why can’t anything be straightforward in life?” James growled angrily.

“Well, we did invade a Stygian city. Can’t expect it to be easy.” Lunaris laughed awkwardly.

“He probably had plans on how to butcher his friends and steal the energy for years. We just gave him an opportunity.” Helios sighed.